Magical Hogwarts

Her ‘no’ sounded like the suggestion in itself was stupid, and Charlie felt more relaxed than wounded. She followed it up with a ‘dunno’, though and he began second-guessing himself. Helpful, Honey.

Charlie frowned and put on an air of offence. “Yes, I did.” He shot her a look, wondering if bringing up presents from last year brought back pleasant memories of his gift for her. “Bottle of bubbly,” he continued after a moment; he supposed it wasn’t a surprise that Honey hadn’t noticed, or Grace, perhaps. He had just hid it with the other present on the table, not directly handed it to the other witch. He hadn’t wanted to make his presence too obvious, but also hadn’t wanted to be caught out only bringing one present to a joint-party. “To go with her sparkling personality,” he added in monotone.

Charlie ate more of his lasagne, then paused to have a sip of wine. “Suppose she’s only thirty-one this year, no need to go all out,” he smirked. He’d hardly gone all out for Honey, his actual girlfriend, but he’d made an effort: a present, dinner. He was sure he could continue to make an effort later, providing Grace didn’t nab his spot in Honey’s bed.

A bottle of bubbly for Grace’s bubbly personality.  “Ha ha,” she said, without a trace of amusement. She wasn’t sure who disliked who more: Charlie, or Grace. Getting them in a room together was going to go so well, tonight was going to be so fun. If it was only Honey’s birthday party, she might propose ditching it altogether, but it was Grace’s birthday, too, so that wouldn’t go over well. But would it go better than surprising her with Charlie? She had another swallow of her new drink, her cocktail glass draining fast.

Thirty-one, he said, and Honey rolled her eyes as she ate more of her spaghetti. She was aware that this—dinner and drinks at home—didn’t count as going all, but did he really have to rub it in her face? Never mind the main reason they had gone with the proper bash last year was to get Honey’s mind off her fresh breakup— which Charlie also, conveniently, helped with. “Hilarious,” she told him, deadpan, though it was a little funny.

She had another drink, her mind drifting toward how she had said she would do the apparating for them… eh, it was her birthday, and she was sort of dreading going home, now— she finished her drink. “We can floo from a bar a couple streets over,” she said, talking about the Archive. She was pretty sure he could figure out that she wanted to have another drink or two before the floo.

…

[ out ]

At the very least, she wasn’t forcing him to be besties with Grace, and he could appreciate that much – it was just bloody inconvenient that their birthdays were days apart and they’d come up with this joint-celebration tradition however many years before he was in the picture. (And would surely continue for many years after he left, if that were the case.)

Charlie topped his glass up with the bottle of wine just as Honey suggested flooing. He wet his lips—mostly to buy himself a moment to put together the fact she had another drink and she wasn’t making a dig at him—and nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed. The fact she’d mentioned a bar, specifically, hinted at more drinks before going back to hers too, and he wasn’t mad at spending more time just the two of them before being outnumbered by Grace and Fergie (he wasn’t sure which way Edith would swing in a crowd). Just the two of them so far wasn’t going fantastically, but if they were both drinking that could only improve.

“Did you make a cake for yourself or am I treating you to a dessert?” he smirked.

…

[ end ]